Ventilation pot cover

ABSTRACT

A ventilation system is provided. The ventilation system includes a ventilation cover configured to be coupled to a kitchen range hood, the ventilation cover including a retractable tube, and a securing mechanism for coupling the retractable tube to the kitchen range hood, wherein the retractable tube includes a lower opening configured to be mounted to an upper surface of a piece of cookware when in an extended position, and wherein the retractable tube includes an upper opening.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a United States non-provisional application andclaims no priority to any previous United States patent application.

FIELD OF THE EMBODIMENTS

This invention relates to ventilation systems and, in particular, toventilation systems for use in food preparation to cover all or part ofa pot or pan.

BACKGROUND OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Typical ventilation systems in kitchens are located above the cookware,with a significant gap between the top of the cookware and theventilation system. This allows smoke, steam, grease, and splatteringliquids to escape the cookware and/or spill out over the stove and/orkitchen. This creates both a mess that must be cleaned up, a fire and/orsmoke hazard from the 20 escaping debris, or an unwanted smellcirculating around living space due to the smoke.

For at least these reasons, a ventilation system is needed enabling thetop of the cookware to come into contact with the ventilation system,helping prevent the negative aspects rampant with traditionalventilation systems.

Examples of related art are described below:

Chinese Patent Publication No. CN2326887Y generally describes an oilfume exhauster with a telescopic pipe barrel type exhausting cover,which can reduce the outward escape of oil fume gases and increase theoil fume gas exhausting efficiency of oil fume exhausters. The utilitymodel is composed of an oil fume exhauster, a telescopic fume exhaustingpipe barrel, a fuse collecting cover, lifting devices, and a connectingpiece. The oil fume exhauster is connected with the telescopic fumeexhausting pipe barrel through the connecting piece; the lower end ofthe telescopic fume exhausting pipe barrel is fixedly connected with thefume collecting cover; 2-4 lifting devices are installed on theperiphery of the telescopic fume exhausting pipe barrel or in the fumeexhausting pipe barrel; the lifting wire of each of the lifting deviceis connected with the fume collecting cover. The utility model has theadvantages of simple structure, easy realization, favorable effect ofoil fume gas exhaust, protection of the health of human bodies, andimprovement of kitchen environments.

Chinese Patent Publication No. CN2438393Y generally describes a closedautomatic stir-frying machine capable of completely exhausting cookingfumes out of door, which is applied to a traditional arc bottom or flatbottom stir-frying pan. An oil smoke exhausting device, a pan cover anda stir-frying pan are enclosed and connected as a whole, and an electricdish shovel is arranged in closed space in the three parts so as todrive the electric dish shovel to rotate through a governor motor. Sothe utility model is the closed automatic stir-frying machine which cancook dishes automatically and causes simultaneously oil smoke generatedin the stir-frying pan to be complete exhausted out of door by the oilsmoke exhausting device.

Chinese Patent Publication No. CN103982928A generally describes anelectric lifting extractor hood which comprises a main housing, a fansystem, a telescopic housing, a sleeve, an extractor hood cover, a meshcap, a decorative housing and an electric lifting device, the fan systemis mounted below a panel of the main housing; the telescopic housingexternally sleeves the main housing; the sleeve is sleeved in the insidediameter of the main housing, and sleeves the fan system in the sleeve;the telescopic housing and the sleeve are fixedly connected with theextractor hood cover at the lower part, and the electric lifting deviceis arranged between the main housing and the telescopic housing. Withthe adoption of the structure, the extractor hood can increase themounting height, when the extractor hood is used, a switch is presseddown, the telescopic housing and a the extractor hood cover body stretchout downward automatically, and the extractor hood cover can approach ahearth more, after the extractor hood is used, the switch can be presseddown again, and the telescopic housing and the extractor hood coverretract upward automatically; and in this way, a purpose of electriclifting is realized.

Chinese Patent Publication No. CN10601639313 generally describes anembeddable smart range hood and an oil fume extraction control method.The embeddable smart range hood comprises a panel, a smoke sensor, acontroller, a motor, a wind wheel, a range hood shell, a condensationsmoke guide plate, a hydraulic telescopic rod and retractable fanblades. The smoke sensor collects oil fume and smoke concentrationinformation A and transmits the oil fume and smoke concentrationinformation A to the controller. A liquid level sensor collects liquidheight information of accumulated oil in an oil box and transmits theliquid height information to the controller. The motor is controlled bythe controller to adjust the rotational speed of the wind wheel in realtime. The hydraulic telescopic rod is controlled by the controller, sothat the telescoping amount of the hydraulic telescopic rod is adjustedin real time, and the opening and closing degree of the retractable fanblades is adjusted. The range hood can sense the concentration of oilfume through the smoke sensor and absorbs oil fume by changing theposition of the condensation smoke guide plate and the position of anair inlet through the hydraulic telescopic rod. The liquid level sensoris arranged on the oil box of the range hood. When the oil level reachesan early warning value, the range hood automatically stops running. Theembeddable smart range hood has the advantages of being simple instructure, attractive in appearance, detachable, capable of savingenergy, environmentally friendly, capable of intelligently absorbingsmoke and conducting intelligent control and the like.

Chinese Patent Publication No. CN106871167A generally describes amultifunctional intelligent integrated cooker. The multifunctionalintelligent integrated cooker has remote-control automatic rice washing,rice cooking and heat preservation functions, a double-cooker touchscreen ignition and firepower magnitude adjusting function, an automaticcooking fume pumping and exhausting, oxygen increasing, combustionsupporting and emission reduction function, an automatic tablewaredisinfection function, an emergency drinking water automatic storagefunction, a water-electricity-gas one-key opening and closing function,and a remote reservation control function. According to themultifunctional intelligent integrated cooker, the practical functionsare integrated, the advantages of being beautiful, practical,economical, safe, convenient to use and the like are achieved, thesituation that a person needs to buy electrical appliances with variousfunctions, thus, money wasting and energy consumption are caused, and alot of spaces are occupied is avoided, and the person does not need toworry about the situation that serious potential safety hazards occurdue to the fact that the person goes out for a long time and forgets toclose water, electricity and gas switches.

Chinese Patent Publication No. CN107449004A generally describes anautomatic telescopic type extractor hood of a multi-cavity structure.The extractor hood comprises air guide pipes, a draught fan assemblyused for ventilation of the air guide pipes and exhaust fume collectinghood assemblies communicating with air inlets of the air guide pipes;the air guide pipes and the exhaust fume collecting hood assemblies arearranged in a grouped manner, at least two groups are arranged, the airguide pipes and exhaust fume collecting hoods are connected andpositioned through telescopic assemblies, and each telescopic assemblycomprises a corrugated pipe enabling the corresponding exhaust fumecollecting hood assembly and the inlet of the corresponding air guidepipe to be in seal abut joint, a telescopic pipe assembly capable ofdriving the exhaust fume collecting hood assembly and the corrugatedpipe to synchronously stretch out and draw back, and a drive mechanismcapable of driving the telescopic assembly to stretch out and draw back;the multi-cavity structure and the telescopic structure are combined,multiple kinds of automation adjustment can be achieved, various smokeexhausting occasion needs can be met, the number of the running exhaustfume collecting hood assemblies can be controlled, the telescopic heightof the exhaust fume collecting hood assemblies can be controlled, andthe intelligent degree is higher.

Chinese Patent Publication No. CN201152570Y generally describes aretractable fume guide hood for a lampblack suction machine, which ischaracterized in that the retractable fume guide hood comprises amovable hood body, and a connecting device connected with the movablehood body and the lampblack suction machine, wherein, the movable hoodbody is connected with the bottom part of the lampblack suction machinethrough the connecting device. The retractable fume guide hood for thelampblack suction machine in the utility model can be widely applied tohotels, restaurants and household kitchens, and the height of theretractable fume guide hood can be freely adjusted according to actualcircumstances, thereby the best effect of the fume exhaust is achieved.

German Patent Publication No. DE10309226A1 generally describes a glassceramic hob unit, with heaters, which may be raised on telescopic barsto engage a space within the underside of the fume extractor unit toenable food preparation on the work surface.

None of the art described above addresses all of the issues that thepresent invention does.

SUMMARY OF THE EMBODIMENTS

According to an aspect of the present invention, a ventilation system isprovided. The ventilation system includes a ventilation cover configuredto be coupled to a kitchen range hood, the ventilation cover including aretractable tube, and a securing mechanism for coupling the retractabletube to the kitchen range hood, wherein the retractable tube includes alower opening configured to be mounted to an upper surface of a piece ofcookware when in an extended position, and wherein the retractable tubeincludes an upper opening.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the ventilation cover is permanently affixed to thekitchen range hood.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the securing mechanism includes one or more magnets.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the securing mechanism includes one or more suctioncups.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the retractable tube includes an accordion-styleextension mechanism.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the upper opening is coupled to at least one fan.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the ventilation system further includes the at least onefan, wherein the at least one fan is positioned within the upper openingof the retractable tube.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the ventilation system further includes a controlmechanism configured to control the at least one fan.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the control mechanism is further configured to enable auser to alter a rotational speed of the at least one fan.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the ventilation system further includes a power sourceconfigured to power the control mechanism.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the ventilation system further includes a power sourceconfigured to power the at least one fan.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the ventilation system further includes at least onesecondary securing mechanism configured to secure the retractable tubein a retracted position.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the retractable tube further includes a hole configuredto enable a user to access the cookware while retractable tube is in theextended position.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the retractable tube further includes a door positionedover the hole, enabling access to an inner portion of the piece ofcookware.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the ventilation system further includes a handle coupledto the retractable tube and configured to enable a user to pull theretractable tube in the extended position.

It is an object of the present invention to provide the ventilationsystem, wherein the ventilation system further includes one or morecables configured to be pulled to extend or retract the retractabletube.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a ventilation pot cover in anextended position, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a top view of a ventilation pot cover, according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a front view of a ventilation pot cover in an extendedposition, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a side view of a ventilation pot cover in an extendedposition, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of a ventilation pot cover in anextended position having an opening in the retractable tubing, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be describedwith reference to the drawings. Identical elements in the variousfigures are identified with the same reference numerals.

Reference will now be made in detail to each embodiment of the presentinvention. Such embodiments are provided by way of explanation of thepresent invention, which is not intended to be limited thereto. In fact,those of ordinary skill in the art may appreciate upon reading thepresent specification and viewing the present drawings that variousmodifications and variations can be made thereto.

Referring now to FIGS. 1-2, a perspective view (FIG. 1) and a top view(FIG. 2) of a ventilation pot cover 100 are illustratively depicted, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

According to an embodiment, the ventilation pot cover 100 includes atube 105 that is configured to be coupled to a kitchen range hood.According to an embodiment, the tube 105 is permanently affixed to thekitchen range hood. According to an embodiment, the tube 105 isremovably attached to the kitchen range hood via one or more securingmechanisms 110. According to an embodiment, the securing mechanism 110may be a magnet, a suction cup, and/or any other suitable securingmechanism.

According to an embodiment, the tube 105 is configured to be pulled downover a cooking apparatus 115 (e.g., a pot, pan, etc.), redirecting,sucking, and carrying smoke and cooking fumes directly to one or morevents in the kitchen range hood. According to an embodiment, the tube105 is secured to a fan 120 configured to stick the smoke and cookingfumes through the tube 105. According to an embodiment, the fan 120 isseparate and apart from the tube 105. According to an embodiment, thefan 120 is integrated into the tube 105.

According to an embodiment, there is an opening 125 at a lower end ofthe tube 105. The opening 125 is configured to be placed over a topportion of the cooking apparatus 115.

According to an embodiment, the tube 105 is configured to be secured tothe kitchen range hood via a magnet or suction cup 110. It is noted,however, that other securing mechanisms 110 may also be used, whilemaintaining the spirit of the present invention. According to anembodiment, the securing mechanism 110 is positioned on the tube 105.According to an embodiment, the securing mechanism 110 is positioned onthe kitchen range hood. According to an embodiment, the securingmechanism 110 is positioned on the tube 105 and the kitchen range hood.

According to an embodiment, the ventilation pot cover 100 includes thefan 120 at the top of the tube 105 to increase efficacy. According to anembodiment, the ventilation pot cover 100 includes a control mechanism130 for controlling the fan 120. According to an embodiment, the controlmechanism 130 includes a means for altering the rotational speed of thefan 120 and/or for powering the fan on and/or off. According to anembodiment, a power source 135 is coupled to the ventilation pot cover100 for powering the fan 120. This fan 120 may be connected to a powersource 135 by a cord and have an on off switch coordinated through aprinted circuit board (PCB).

According to an embodiment, the tube 105 is configured to be pulled downover a pot or pan 115 while cooking to carry smoke/cooking fumesdirectly to the vent. According to an embodiment, the tube 105 is pulleddown over a pot or pan in an accordion fashion (as shown in FIGS. 1 and3) to provide a direct path for the smoke and fumes to travel to thekitchen range hood. According to an embodiment, the accordion mechanism140 is assisted by cables 145 that are pulled up and down by a liftingmechanism similar to how window blinds function. It is noted, however,that other extension means may also be used for extending the tube overthe pot or pan (such as a pull handle 150, as shown in FIGS. 1-3), whilemaintaining the spirit of the present invention.

According to an embodiment, the ventilation pot cover 100 includes ahole 155 e ventilation pot cover 100 is pulled down over the pot/pan 120(as shown in FIG. 5). According to an embodiment, a removable door ispositioned over the hole 155. The hole 155 may also enable access to aninner portion of the pot/pan 120. This aids in the food preparationprocess and helps prevent users from overcooking food. This ability tovisually inspect the contents of the cookware 120 further aids in theprevention of dangerous kitchen fires from occurring during the cookingprocess.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a front view of the ventilation pot cover 100in an extended position is illustratively depicted, in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention.

According to an embodiment, the ventilation pot cover 100 is configuredsuch that it maintains its position when in a retracted position.According to an embodiment, the ventilation pot cover 100 includes oneor more securing mechanisms 160 (as shown in FIG. 4) configured to holdthe ventilation pot cover 100 in the retracted position.

When introducing elements of the present disclosure or the embodiment(s)thereof, the articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to mean thatthere are one or more of the elements. Similarly, the adjective“another,” when used to introduce an element, is intended to mean one ormore elements. The terms “including” and “having” are intended to beinclusive such that there may be additional elements other than thelisted elements.

Although this invention has been described with a certain degree ofparticularity, it is to be understood that the present disclosure hasbeen made only by way of illustration and that numerous changes in thedetails of construction and arrangement of parts may be resorted towithout departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A ventilation system, comprising: a ventilationcover configured to be coupled to a kitchen range hood, the ventilationcover including: a retractable tube; and a securing mechanism forcoupling the retractable tube to the kitchen range hood, wherein theretractable tube includes a lower opening configured to be mounted to anupper surface of a piece of cookware when in an extended position, andwherein the retractable tube includes an upper opening.
 2. Theventilation system as recited in claim 1, wherein the ventilation coveris permanently affixed to the kitchen range hood.
 3. The ventilationsystem as recited in claim 1, wherein the securing mechanism includesone or more magnets.
 4. The ventilation system as recited in claim 1,wherein the securing mechanism includes one or more suction cups.
 5. Theventilation system as recited in claim 1, wherein the retractable tubeincludes an accordion-style extension mechanism.
 6. The ventilationsystem as recited in claim 1, wherein the upper opening is coupled to atleast one fan.
 7. The ventilation system as recited in claim 6, furthercomprising the at least one fan, wherein the at least one fan ispositioned within the upper opening of the retractable tube.
 8. Theventilation system as recited in claim 6, further comprising a controlmechanism configured to control the at least one fan.
 9. The ventilationsystem as recited in claim 8, wherein the control mechanism is furtherconfigured to enable a user to alter a rotational speed of the at leastone fan.
 10. The ventilation system as recited in claim 8, furthercomprising a power source configured to power the control mechanism. 11.The ventilation system as recited in claim 6, further comprising a powersource configured to power the at least one fan.
 12. The ventilationsystem as recited in claim 1, further comprising at least one secondarysecuring mechanism configured to secure the retractable tube in aretracted position.
 13. The ventilation system as recited in claim 1,wherein the retractable tube further includes a hole configured toenable a user to access the cookware while retractable tube is in theextended position.
 14. The ventilation system as recited in claim 1,further comprising a handle coupled to the retractable tube andconfigured to enable a user to pull the retractable tube in the extendedposition.
 15. The ventilation system as recited in claim 1, furthercomprising one or more cables configured to be pulled to extend orretract the retractable tube.